


ticket for one

by kyrilu



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Implied Relationships, M/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-24
Updated: 2014-05-24
Packaged: 2018-01-26 07:50:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1680491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyrilu/pseuds/kyrilu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One last therapy session.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ticket for one

On their last session together, Chilton offers Will a piece of paper and a soft-tipped pen. “I would like to try one last exercise,” Chilton says, although his previous attempts at ‘exercises’ have been mostly futile, meaningless. “You’re a free man now, Mr. Graham. Why don’t you write - or draw, if you like - anything you want.”

Will has to bring himself to attention, looking at the paper and pen as if they’re completely foreign objects to him. He is not a toddler, and does not appreciate Chilton’s efforts of psychoanalyzation. There is nothing that he would like to write - not letters of anger to Dr. Lecter, or letters of regret to Alana, letters of rage and proof and sprawling accusation to Jack - that would be worth it. He is merely waiting for his stay to end, minutes ticking down to freedom. And possibly: confrontation. Closure.

But he decides to humor Chilton. Chilton, who may likely be Lecter’s next target. Who has heard Will’s suspicions and is rather _rude_ by Lecter’s standards. Will presses the paper on the side of the therapy cage, the surface making the marks rough and ragged, making the point pierce through. With a sweep of the pen, Will brings back deja vu.

He passes the sheet of paper back to Chilton. Chilton - this time - does not flinch at the proximity, their hands inches apart.

Chilton takes the paper, the curiosity bright in his eyes. Considering what kind of paper he should write about this, perhaps. He is predictable, familiar, and Will thinks that he prefers these fumbling intrusions into his head, a bumbling force he can notice, compared to Lecter’s silent invasion. Whispers that take over his thoughts and dreams.

Chilton studies the drawing, his brows raised. “What’s this?”

It’s a picture of a clock. It conveys everything and nothing: _My name is Will Graham. I am in Baltimore, Maryland, institutionalized at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. I will be free soon. I will have my reckoning._

“Time,” Will says. He can see the clock clearly: the numbers, the hour hand, the minute hand. If he closes his eyes, he can make them spin.

Chilton does not question the picture’s geometry. But he is thoughtful, setting the sheaf on top of his notepad, covered in voluminous paragraph after paragraph of black ink. Chilton taps the end of his pen on Will’s clock. Will doesn’t usually watch Chilton, but now he does

And then they make eye contact. Chilton’s eyes are a greyish green, keen and alert. They don’t see everything - far from it - but they catch on, more than you think.

“I don’t know if you’re aware of this,” Chilton says, suddenly, “but I named him.”

“Oh?” Will’s tone is almost indifferent, but he’s listening.

“Yes,” Chilton says, sustaining the eye contact. “In fact, I consulted on the case with your Jack Crawford. They called him the Maryland Monster, then, because his initial murders were confined here. But his radius expanded.” Chilton gestures with his pen. “And I started calling him the Chesapeake Ripper. He and his predecessor both are of an organized and disorganized nature, to a degree; they both have an anatomical precision, to an extent. The name caught on.”

More likely, Chilton talked to the papers and the name spread. Will laughs, softly, under his breath. He says, “Jack the Ripper was never caught.”

Chilton shrugs his shoulders, but he is trembling, a nearly imperceptible shift of his body. There is a faint sheen of sweat on his forehead. He slides Will’s clock back through the bars of the therapy cage, and reminds him: “Time, Graham.”

_Catch him._

This is something like an understanding. After Chilton stumbles onto the bodies, stumbles into Hannibal Lecter, the first person he runs to is Will Graham.


End file.
